Epitaxially deposited layers of semiconductor materials play a key role in high-speed device technology, III-V materials such as, e.g., gallium arsenide, gallium phosphide, indium gallium arsenide, indium gallium arsenide phosphide, and gallium arsenide phosphide being of particular current interest in devices such as, e.g., high-speed electronic and optoelectronic devices. Among classes of methods proposed for the deposition of such layers on suitable substrates are methods known as liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) and vapor phase epitaxy (VPE), the latter being considered particularly suitable for the deposition of high-quality layers especially when used under conditions of extreme vacuum as in a method known as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
While the quality of MBE-deposited layers is exemplary, alternate deposition methods have been proposed as motivated largely by a desire to reduce processing costs. In this respect, the use of so-called metalorganic gases as starting materials has been studied as reported, e.g., by L. M. Fraas, "A New Low-Temperature III-V Multilayer Growth Technique: Vacuum Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition", Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 52 (1981), pp. 6939-6943, and by E. Veuhoff et al., "Metalorganic CVD of GaAs in a Molecular Beam System", Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 55 (1981), pp. 30-34.